Hornby TT120 HM7000 Sound Chips factory fitted

[dunnyrail]

Sorry if this has been raised before, but only thread is a lot of posts on the introduction of the range. Today I recieved 2 more sound locomotives, Silver King and Trigo. I have 2 questions.

 

Q1 - I have the Easterner Set with William Whitelaw Sound Fitted. In my fuddling to get it running I could not get it to run with sound so downloaded the A4 TT Sound Project. It runs fine now with sound BUT only 2 beats to each wheel revolution, can the chip be updated to 6 as per the prototype?

 

Q2 - Do I need to update the sound chip for every loco I buy suffering a rather long update process, the instructions appear to say sound is pre loaded so I am missing something somewhere?

[Bob83a]

The TXS sound files have been updated in the last week or two with new features and improvements.  It is likely that any model that is being sold with sounds pre-installed has an older version, therefore you will probably be offered the update when you first try to connect the model to the app.

 

 

[RAF96]

And the old version will carry problems since fixed, so essential to update to the latest version. Also note there are 00 and TT variants profiles so make sure you get the right one as the profile is tuned to the scale, particularly motor response.

Suffering a long delay - the updates generally take 10-15 minutes, hardly onerous.

Edited October 6, 2023 by RAF96

[dunnyrail]

Thanks for the replies, but that does not tell me why I cannot get sound out of a new loco no matter how old.

[RAF96]

12 hours ago, dunnyrail said:

Thanks for the replies, but that does not tell me why I cannot get sound out of a new loco no matter how old.

You said you had sound but the wrong cylinder count..

There gave been reports of TT locos with factory fit speakers, not sounding. Plugging a spare HM7K speaker in can prove the decoder and point the finger at the pre-fitted speaker.

[dunnyrail]

Nothing wrong with the noise happening. Spoke to Hornby yesterday who confirmed that there is no way to get 6 beats to the revolution of the wheels ie no chuff syncronisation or electronic way of achieving it. I find this a bit difficult to understand, many other sound chips even including the relatively crude analogue My loco Sound can do it so low marks to the HM7000 chips and system. As for getting locs to work, one needs to download the correct sound per new loco bought. Hornby suggested that a generic sound is pre loaded but I have not managed to get it to work. The process is long winded, unintuitive and can take 30 minutes per loco. But when done short of the chuff rate the sounds for such a small loco are very good. So I now have my 3 pacifics making noises.
 

Thanks again for your thoughts, I must try to do an idiots guide to starting to get my HM7000 sound locomotives up and running.

[Pete the Elaner]

1 hour ago, dunnyrail said:

Nothing wrong with the noise happening. Spoke to Hornby yesterday who confirmed that there is no way to get 6 beats to the revolution of the wheels ie no chuff synchronisation or electronic way of achieving it. I find this a bit difficult to understand, many other sound chips even including the relatively crude analogue My loco Sound can do it so low marks to the HM7000 chips and system. As for getting locos to work, one needs to download the correct sound per new loco bought. Hornby suggested that a generic sound is pre loaded but I have not managed to get it to work. The process is long winded, unintuitive and can take 30 minutes per loco. But when done short of the chuff rate the sounds for such a small loco are very good. So I now have my 3 pacifics making noises.
 

Thanks again for your thoughts, I must try to do an idiots guide to starting to get my HM7000 sound locomotives up and running.

 

Handy to know.

 

There is a lot which analogue chips won't do that DCC will: proper coasting, controllable acceleration/deceleration/braking, consisting. TXS will not do the lot & that is what keeps the cost lower than an ESU or Zimo.

[RAF96]

It has been shown that some improvement can be made to the chuff synch by fiddling with the complex speed curve values. Sample charts have previously been posted around the forums as guided. Later sound profile updates will have reworked speed curves as standard to better match chuff to cylinder numbers.

With regard to an idiot’s guide, these have already been written for use where the simplistic and very intuitive app is too difficult for some folk, thus a whole series of step by step how-tos are available on the Hornby site. https://uk.Hornby.com/hm7000/hm-dcc-guides

[RedgateModels]

19 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Handy to know.

 

There is a lot which analogue chips won't do that DCC will: proper coasting, controllable acceleration/deceleration/braking, consisting. TXS will not do the lot & that is what keeps the cost lower than an ESU or Zimo.

 Indeed Pete. Coasting is possible though by setting the deceleration momentum to a very high value and then using the brake key (F27) to stop the loco when you want. It's not ideal if you are operating in DCC mode on say a Powercab as at least 3 button presses are needed to activate F27 .... If you have a more modern DCC system that allows for button reconfiguration then it's less of a problem

 

[Pete the Elaner]

6 hours ago, RedgateModels said:

 Indeed Pete. Coasting is possible though by setting the deceleration momentum to a very high value and then using the brake key (F27) to stop the loco when you want. It's not ideal if you are operating in DCC mode on say a Powercab as at least 3 button presses are needed to activate F27 .... If you have a more modern DCC system that allows for button reconfiguration then it's less of a problem

 

 

I saw earlier in another thread that braking is on F27.

My system is a Powercab so I can't change my functions & I've just seen your comment about function mapping on the Turbomotive thread 😒

[RedgateModels]

17 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

I saw earlier in another thread that braking is on F27.

My system is a Powercab so I can't change my functions & I've just seen your comment about function mapping on the Turbomotive thread 😒

 

Yes, it's a pain. 

[RAF96]

I use F27 in programmed operations. I leave the throttle at line speed and brake the loco to a stop in the station by way of a sensor trip approaching the platform. Once my station stop is achieved I deselect F27 in the program and the loco moves back to line speed at its normal CV3 rate, looking for the next sensor event. It works for me.

[dunnyrail]

On 10/10/2023 at 10:19, RAF96 said:

It has been shown that some improvement can be made to the chuff synch by fiddling with the complex speed curve values. Sample charts have previously been posted around the forums as guided. Later sound profile updates will have reworked speed curves as standard to better match chuff to cylinder numbers.

With regard to an idiot’s guide, these have already been written for use where the simplistic and very intuitive app is too difficult for some folk, thus a whole series of step by step how-tos are available on the Hornby site. https://uk.Hornby.com/hm7000/hm-dcc-guides

Ok thanks for that, any clue on where CV lists can be found? I like my locomotives to have no momentum. I think I may have stumbled on them in the HM7000 but it would be useful to have a printed list or at least a .PDF handy on my iPad. Also query re speed curve fiddling, any idea where these have been recorded please?

[RAF96]

19 hours ago, dunnyrail said:

Ok thanks for that, any clue on where CV lists can be found? I like my locomotives to have no momentum. I think I may have stumbled on them in the HM7000 but it would be useful to have a printed list or at least a .PDF handy on my iPad. Also query re speed curve fiddling, any idea where these have been recorded please?

The basic CV listings are in the comprehensive decoder manual which along with the associated individual loco sound profile function listings can be found in the support document download area of the Hornby site here - https://uk.Hornby.com/hm7000/hm-dcc-guides

The complex speed curve suggested settings for reasonable chuff synch will be in the next update of the decoder manual, but here is a heads up screen grab for your info. The tweaking of the complex speed curve for individual locos, which has to be turned on in CV29, was discussed either on here or the Hornby HM7K forum, can’t remember which.